The Beatitudes in Light of the Gospel

The British Viceroy, Lord Irwin, asked Gandhi what he thought would solve the problems between Great Britain and India. Gandhi opened the Bible to the fifth chapter of Matthew and said: “When your country and mine shall get together on the teachings laid down by Christ in this Sermon on the Mount, we shall have solved the problems not only of our countries but those of the whole world.”

In one of his speeches he said: ”The message of Jesus as I understand it, is contained in the Sermon on the Mount unadulterated and taken as a whole… If then I had to face only the Sermon on the Mount and my own interpretation of it, I should not hesitate to say, ‘Oh, yes, I am a Christian.’ But negatively I can tell you that in my humble opinion, what passes as Christianity is a negation of the Sermon on the Mount.”

Is Christianity in America a negation of the Beatitudes? There’s an attitude that boasts in how the United States are #1. Take for example, the Apotheosis of Washington, in the eye of the U.S. Capitol Building's Rotunda. It displays our triumphalism. It depicts George Washington rising to the heavens in glory. We appropriated the Christian iconography of Christ ascended to heaven and replaced Jesus with George Washington. The word "apotheosis" in the title means literally 'the raising of a person to the rank of a god’, or ‘the glorification of a person as an ideal’.

Is this how we see ourselves? We are #1 in what? Divorce? Drug addiction? Debt? Obesity? Murder? Crime? Rape? Taking antidepressants? Pornography? Highest military spending? How would we rank according to the Beatitudes?

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,

For they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,

For they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

For they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

For they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,

For they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

For they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The Sermon on the Mount plows the soil of our heart, but then plants new seeds there. It empties us but simultaneously fills us. It humbles us, but lifts us. It kills the ego, but resurrects confidence in Christ. It is the constitution of the kingdom of God. It is, if you will, the biography of Jesus, transposed into a sermon. 

Jesus is the Poor in spirit, who brought the kingdom of heaven. He is the one who mourned, and was comforted. He is the Meek, who inherited the earth. He is the Righteous one, full of grace and truth. He is the Merciful one, who poured out great mercy. He is the Pure in heart, for He is God. He is the Peacemaker, called the Son of God. He was persecuted for righteousness’ sake, and to Him belongs the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is the Blessed! And He revealed who He is, not only through this sermon, but ultimately by laying down His life us.

Thus He overturned every grandiose notion of greatness, and challenged us to follow Him on the path of humility, meekness and peace. This is “The Way.” What does it look like to follow Christ? It looks like the Sermon on the Mount. And the Beatitudes are the divine life for us to live. This is the great irony, also expressed throughout Jesus’ teaching: “whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it”; or “whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.”

Greatness is not measured in economic success or imperial power. A country’s greatness is not measured by the most amount of nuclear weapons. 

When USA dropped an atomic bomb over Nagasaki, it detonated in Urakami. Christians in Japan had suffered persecution and were subject to extreme harsh treatment, such as torture or crucifixion. As a result, Urakami became the stronghold for oppressed believers who hid during the ban on Christianity. When the ban lifted, the Urakami Cathedral was built, and it was the largest Christian church in East Asia. 20 years later, the atomic bomb dropped and killed almost all 15,000 villagers, almost all Christian, including all who worshipped inside the cathedral. The Japanese surrendered, and USA won. Or did they? It depends if the Sermon on the Mount is our guiding principle. Today, less than 1% are Christian in Japan.

There is a notion that the Sermon on the Mount cannot be practiced and that even trying to follow the Beatitudes is a denial of the grace of God in favor of salvation by works. Turning the other cheek is not considered that “great.” But Jesus’ own summary is that the wise person whose house is built on solid rock is the one who “hears these words of mine and puts them into practice.” And what person, who aspire to follow Jesus, would not practice the Beatitudes?

Indeed Jesus taught the Beatitudes before the cross, and under the Old Covenant. But the New Covenant does not motivate us to take an opposite approach to the Beatitudes, that we should be aggressive rather than meek, ruthless and not merciful, filthy and not pure in heart etc.

God’s empowering grace, which is Christ in us, helps us to follow the Christ who lives in us. In fact He leads us. Paul insists, “For me to live is Christ… yet not I, but Christ who lives in me.” And Christ in us helps us with the Beatitudes. 

A distorted message of grace could deceive us into thinking that it is impossible to do what Jesus said, and that we can only accept that we can’t do it. But that presupposes that Christ is not in us. The truth is that the Christ in us does it through us.

In this New Covenant, then, we have a whole new starting point, and that is what Christ has done, and what He continues to do through us. We can then read the Beatitudes in that light:

Blessed are those who have received the unfathomable riches of Christ, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, (Eph 3:8).

Blessed are those who mourn, for they have the Comforter, who reminds them of everything Jesus said, (John 14:26).

Blessed are those whom Christ has made meek, for they have received an inheritance, (Eph 1:11)

Or how about this? Blessed be God, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, (1 Pet. 1:4-7).

Blessed are those who have Christ, for they will never hunger or thirst again, (John 4:14; 6:35).

Blessed are the merciful, but even the ungodly, for they have received great mercy, (Eph 2:5; Rom 5:8).

Blessed are those who have seen God revealed in Christ, (Col 1:15).

Blessed are the children of God, for the Prince of Peace inspires them to be peacemakers like Him. 

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for the kingdom of heaven is within them.

So in the light of the New Covenant, we naturally want to obey the Beatitudes, because we have already received its rewards. We don’t see them as a legal code, but rather as Jesus’ version of the fruit of the Spirit of grace.